Country music! After all, it is home to the Gympie Country Music Muster
Agree on the soft AC. But I read recently there are a lot of younger couples/families moving to Gympie as they get priced out of the Sunshine Coast. Quite a few new housing developments Iāve seen myself driving through.
Iām not a fan of Sky News to any stretch of the imagination but having said that, from a purely logical standpoint it would be a very good idea if for sky to do this, we already see them launching around the place on DAB+ with Sky News Radio so it would make sense if they wanted to get to become a house hold name to get on AM and start developing it to go up against the likes of 2GB.
They wouldnāt be able to due to the 2 station to a market rule (Nova and Smooth being owned by the co-chair of News Corp).
The only way they could get Sky News Radio on the airwaves would be via DAB+ which theyāve already done in Brisbane.
You would think the children would be looking at selling the stations, they reportedly have no interest in those assets?
Theyāve said that they would continue to honour Billās legacy
Jockās Journal published this note that went to staff
SUPER NETWORK RADIO STAFF ANNOUNCEMENT
Bill Caralis, our Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, and a giant of the radio industry in Australia, passed away on Friday 19th July 2024.
Pam Caralis, John Caralis, Despina Priala (nee Caralis) and George Caralis advise with great sadness and pain that their beloved Husband, Dad, leader and lifelong inspiration passed away at Pindara Hospital on Friday afternoon last week.
Whilst unexpected and a shock to us all, and although we are suffering great pain and grief, the reality is this sad eventuality is one the Family has prepared for over the years and had a succession plan in place for. In terms of that Plan, Despina Priala (nee Caralis) and George Caralis will immediately assume the role of Joint Managing Directors of all companies and entities within the Super Radio Network group.
Due to Billās incredible business acumen, foresight, and careful forward planning he left the Super Radio Network in a formidable financial position, highly profitable, well capitalised, and debt free. The Caralis Family is committed to a ābusiness as usualā approach for the Super Radio Network, with no plans to change anything operationally, and in particular day to day operations will continue this week and in future weeks no different to how they have in the past. Despite Bill C being no longer with us in your day-to-day business activities and tasks you should barely notice any changes.
Robyn Maclean who has been with Bill C as his right-hand person in the Boardroom for more than 30 years will continue in her general management role reporting daily to Despina and George so as per usual access to key decision makers, ownership, and the Managing Directors will be exclusively through Robyn.
For those of you who knew Bill C you would know all that he would want now is for the business to continue as per normal and for everyone to get on with doing their jobs as well as they can and with a minimum of fuss. That is what the Family asks of you now.
As you can appreciate, we are grieving the sudden loss of our beloved Dad, and with Mum having serious health problems of her own, we need time and space to attend to Family matters, so for the moment we ask for our privacy, and we will announce funeral details as soon as possible. In the meantime, please letās all honour Dadās legacy by getting back to business as usual.
Good news for employees, particularly around the operation being debt-free and able to continue in a profitable state. I have always wondered about its revenue intake and how the market downturn is impacting the business.
I wonder then why they allegedly havenāt been paying rent at a number of TX sites? That should count as debt, maybe it doesnāt in the Caralis world.
Many transmissions sites in regional Australia for both TV and radio were setup based on handshake agreements between station owners and land owners. Quite often these were for peanuts because the land owners had a vested interest in helping their communities access broadcast services for the first time. Thereās been plenty of disputes about ongoing/revised terms as owners of both stations and the land has changed over the years. Generally the stations have come to new agreements as required with considerably more expensive terms for the broadcasters as theyāve moved to market rates.
Without any knowledge of the Caralis disputes, I suspect most are centred around there being no formal agreement. Itās quite likely land/site owners have come to Bill wanting to increase rates, Billās pointed out thereās no formal agreement, and so begins a stalemate where the most the site owner can really do is restrict access to the site.
Not entirely as you put it.
From what Iāve been told Caralis never paid rent to Nine Radio & previous owners for its 2SM transmission facilities at Homebush Bay, he never paid rent to NBN/Nine TV for the transmission facilities at Mt Sugarloaf Newcastle, he never paid rent for transmission facilities at Tamworth & Armidale to Prime TV, Nine weāre always chasing him for payment, Prime didnāt bother until Seven took over then they did & it eventually led to the TX locations of the AM to FM conversions in those 2 towns. Theyāre just ones I know of, Iām sure thereās others.
Newcastle & Sydney definitely wouldnāt have been a handshake agreement or cheap rental agreement with no expectation of an increase in costs.
Listening to 4GY Noosa on 107.1MHz tonight. It is absolutely shocking; audio drop outs & whistle sounds. Shortwave radio DX sounds much better.
Maintenance for this service?
When the Caralis children complete their mum & dadās funeral arrangements/grieving, some focus on improving the delivery of the baseband signal to this Noosa FM transmitter should be investigated.
Hmm, thatās not quite how I read that. Itās ābusiness as usualā but it doesnāt give an indication of how long the status quo would be maintained. I actually find the wording a bit terse TBH.
Just doubled checked with a source of mine and found this is true
I am in massive shock, canāt believe they both went in the space of 3 days
I had dealings with Pam from time to time during my time working at SRN
tbf the new custodians of the business just lost both parents within a few days of each other. I think itās probably not fair to look for any hidden subtext or jump to any conclusions based on one email.
I completely agree, family and those close to them both are not in a very good place right now
The email would be more about putting staff members minds at ease to keep the ship on course as it has been prior to the passings of the owners
I agree. Itās an email that gives staff an update of who is in charge and lets them know that for the time being nothing really changes. Itās good for staff to have certainty that theyāve still got a job for the time being and thereās no changes coming immediately.
As time progresses, Iām sure thereāll be changes - be it small or large. By the sounds of it a succession plan was in place and Iām sure the kids have an understanding of the business, but over time theyāll find out if they have the same passion for it that Bill had, or decide itās time to get their money out. I wouldnāt expect significant changes for a while. It will be interesting to see how Despina and George present themselves publically.
I canāt find anything online about George or John, but Despina is a lawyer with somewhat of a profile on the Gold Coast, including hosting a weekly legal segment on Radio 97 until this year when it moved to be online only due to programming changes at Radio 97 - itās pretty rough to get your segment shafted when your Dad owns the station!!
Generally speaking, there are tools such as bolt cutters and oxy acetylene torches and other items to restore access to sites.
Should the site owner be more pastoral and approaches with a firearm, best advice would be to comply and beat a hasty retreat.
A funeral notice was published in the SMH on Saturday too
I donāt tend to read online news to much these days, even more so now you have to pay for everything you want to view on a news site